Michael Dessen Trio Awarded New Music USA Project Grant

Michael Dessen Trio Awarded New Music USA Project Grant

Associate Professor of Music, Michael Dessen, was awarded a project grant by New Music USA to support performances, outreach events and a recording by his electro-acoustic trio. The trio, featuring bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Dan Weiss along with Dessen on trombone/computer/composition, has garnered critical acclaim for their unique and exciting performances that integrate live electronics, intricate composition and collective improvisation. The project award from New Music USA will enable the trio to perform and teach workshops in Massachusetts and New York in June 2016, after which they’ll record for CD featuring "Somewhere In The Upstream," a composition dedicated to and inspired by one of Dessen’s mentors, renowned musician Yusef Lateef. The composition takes the form of a "scorestream,” an algorithmic, networked composition that is displayed dynamically on computer screens for improvisers to interpret.